[quote=flu] . . . But hey, I’m going to get around this…Before my kid is a freshman in high schoool, I’m going to temporarily change her last name to something like “Smith” or “Ramirez” and not check the ethnicity box… Hey, perfectly legal to change one’s last name, and if the admissions board classifies her mistakenly, that’s not exactly my fault is it? Yes, it might sound ridiculous…But that’s just how ridiculous some of our social policies are….[/quote]
I’m laughing at this, flu, ‘cuz many HS parents of kids and students themselves already do this. I didn’t realize this until last month, when I began actually looking at the CA API-score website’s “demographics” of HS’s I’m intimately familiar with. Many, many students don’t even HAVE to change their names. They can just claim on paper that they are a certain “ethnic minority” (although I believe everyone is a “minority” in SD County) and it flies. It’s ALL IN A NAME. For example, they can be 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or 100% “Hispanic” but if they happen to have an Hispanic name, they’re “Hispanic” on paper. I have no doubt that a local school and/or district receives more Federal funds for programs if they appear to have a higher “minority” population so encourage kids to check the box “Hispanic” on their state test answer sheets. I’m looking at these kids’ very “caucasian-appearing” parents and grandparents all around me (orig from US east coast and middle America) and laughing at the demographic “stats” for my local HS.
Same goes for college applications. With an Hispanic name, it looks as though a applicant might be in a “disadvantaged category” to a college admission board when in actuality, the kid was raised upper-middle class (many on 1/2 AC+ lots, lol) and had every advantage. I guess it helps that most of the public perceives SD South County as “upper TJ” and a ghetto, because it’s situated on the US/MX border. These local kids are laughing all the way to CSU/UC campuses all over the state. A student is admitted to college on paper only. Luv it!!
It’s like looking at the photos of a RE listing online as opposed to being at ground zero viewing it in person . . . lol!
You are correct flu. It’s perfectly legal to change your name or your ethnicity to any ethnicity you can legally identify with. Whatever it takes to get admitted :=]
